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“When taking into consideration the machinery at their disposal, how much they have squeezed from what they have, how few errors have been made, there is a very real case to be made for putting Kubica ahead of all the other drivers this year.”

Willian Ceolin of Corrida de Formula 1 explains more of the background to this story: “According to sources, a Panasonic’s representative met Peter Sauber, Kamui Kobayashi and Monisha Kaltenborn, executive of the team, after the Japanese Grand Prix. Panasonic have sponsored motorsport since some years ago. The company already sponsored Kobayashi in feeder categories like European F3 and GP2 Series. Until the last year, Panasonic had a deal with Toyota whose contract would be until 2012. So, this money could be used to support the new local hero.”

“Instead of Prost as the villain, then, the role falls to FISA President Jean-Marie Balestre. Cleverly, he picks up this position not through anybody?óÔé¼Ôäós opinions, but through his own words and actions. Sometimes he makes you want to scream, he really does, his incredible outbursts, crushing arrogance and unbelievable bias making Max Mosley look like a positively even-handed pussycat.”

“Who is to say which team will do the best job? Maybe McLaren will ultimately fail and the questionable details heralding their demise in some media outlets could indeed become hard fact. But given the extraordinary roller-coaster ride this season, let?óÔé¼Ôäós not go there until the true story is created by the final addition of championship points rather than some sport editor?óÔé¼Ôäós need to sell tomorrow?óÔé¼Ôäós newspaper.”

Comment of the day

Once a driver is given a gearbox change penalty the replacement gearbox is only required to last until the end of that Event (Japan)and may be changed without penalty for the next Event (Korea).

F1 Sporting Regulations:

“28.6 For the purposes of this Article only, an Event will be deemed to comprise P3, the qualifying practice session and the race.
a) Each driver may use no more than one gearbox for four consecutive Events in which his team competes. Should a driver use a replacement gearbox he will drop five places on the starting grid at that Event and an additional five places each time a further gearbox is used.
Any replacement gearbox must be fitted with the same gear ratios that were declared under d) below and will only be required to complete the remainder of the Event in question. Any change to the gear ratios declared under d) below will incur a further five grid place penalty. In either case a new four race sequence may start at the following Event.DeadManWoking

Happy birthday!

On this day in F1

Five years ago today Renault announced they would give a test to an up-and-coming driver called Robert Kubica, who had just won the World Series by Renault.

Kubica drove for the team in December but Flavio Briatore decided not to offer him a contract and Mario Theissen snapped him up instead. After several practice appearance for BMW he was promoted to the race team halfway through 2006.

Lewis was turned down by Williams??? Wasn’t he supported by Mclaren since he was 13 years old? I didn’t even know that Lewis had approached any team other than Mclaren. Maybe when he was 12 years old he went up to Frank and asked for a drive :)

I’m not entirely sure DeadManWoking is right. Aftering reading that regulation I’m as confused as ever. It’s a very poor choice of words that don’t really seem to give a concrete interpretation (a common theme with the FIA).

If the Panasonic rumor turns out to be true that’s great news for Sauber, and will hopefully keep Kobayashi from being ousted for Mexican drivers after next year.

Ah, but maybe Panasonic just wanted to see what he would be like (worth supporting or not) and maybe they also wanted the team to be stabelized.

Both these things would by now be settled. Would that make it a Panasonic Sauber Ferrari team, sponsored by Telmex?
What coulors would that mean for the livery? Lightblue with white combined with Red/dark blue?

Maybe, but Panasonic made a point of sponsoring the Japanese team, despite their overall lack of performance. I do believe they renewed the deal with Toyota at least once in their eight years, so it’s not like they were testing Toyota out.

Panasonic and Sauber partnering will be good for the team as they have already have Mexican tele giant coming with them. So with good money,some young driver will this be a recipe for some good success in 2011, I won’t bet against that.

I won’t see the film in the cinema, I just don’t see it as a cinema-going film. Obviously they have to release it in cinemas to get the exposure, but I’ll miss it, wish I’d seen it after the rave reviews, finally get it on DVD and then think it wasn’t that bad waiting a few months.

I was a big fan of Senna. No matter what any review says, I can’t wait to see the movie and I definitely will looooove seeing it on a big screen. Can-not-wait, must-have-Senna-movie… with popcorn… hhmmmm (Homer Simpson drool)